Community Empowerment Lab (CEL)

Community Empowerment Lab (CEL) is a community-entrenched global health research and innovation organisation based in Shivgarh, central Uttar Pradesh, India. The CEL team consists of physicians, social scientists, technologists, and management experts that focus on developing and evaluating multidisciplinary, integrated, and innovative solutions for maternal, newborn, and child health, and taking them to scale. CEL has won several Grand Challenges innovation awards and has a rich history of conducting complex community-based public health trials, as well as cutting-edge work on neurodevelopment and the behavioral sciences. CEL’s landmark Shivgarh trial (Lancet, 2008) on newborn survival, which led to a 54% reduction in newborn deaths, has informed national and global programs and policies including World Health Organization recommendations on home visitations by community health workers. CEL is now recognised by the Indian Council of Medical Research as a Collaborating Center of Excellence and a Center for Advanced Research in Maternal and Newborn Health. CEL is supported by the WHO, Grand Challenges Canada and has active collaborations with several leading academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and Harvard University.